Stacy v. Minit Oil Change, Inc.

874 So. 2d 384, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1165, 2004 WL 1103502
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 12, 2004
Docket38,439-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 874 So. 2d 384 (Stacy v. Minit Oil Change, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stacy v. Minit Oil Change, Inc., 874 So. 2d 384, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1165, 2004 WL 1103502 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

874 So.2d 384 (2004)

Larry STACY, Plaintiff-Appellant
v.
MINIT OIL CHANGE, INC., et al., Defendant-Appellees.

No. 38,439-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

May 12, 2004.

*385 David R. Cook and Associates, by David R. Cook, Kent Gill, Shreveport, for Appellant.

Crawford & Anzelmo, by Donald J. Anzelmo, Monroe, for Appellees.

Before GASKINS, CARAWAY and MOORE, JJ.

MOORE, J.

Larry Stacy appeals a summary judgment dismissing his personal injury suit against his former employer, Minit Oil Change, arising from an aggravated assault by a co-worker during business hours. For the reasons expressed, we affirm.

Factual Background

Because the matter was decided by summary judgment, the facts are extracted from Stacy's two depositions, given in December 1996 and December 2002, and from the transcript of his workers' compensation trial, held in November 1997.

The incident occurred at Minit's former carwash near the corner of Southfield and Youree Drive in Shreveport. Stacy had *386 been employed for a month or two as a car washer; James Stevenson was also a car washer there. Stacy arrived at work a few minutes before opening on the morning of October 10, 1996. Stevenson had brought some homemade cookies. He offered some to Stacy, who took two; Stevenson complained that he took too many. Stacy offered to return one, but Stevenson declined. In his first deposition, Stacy referred to this as a "little confrontation"; in the second, he agreed the "bad blood started over the cookies."

Moments later, the carwash opened. An employee would drive the vehicles through the tunnel for machine washing; at the rear of the tunnel, Stacy (or other employees) would do "finish work." After Stacy finished the day's first vehicle, a Jeep, and returned it to the front, the customer asked him to get more bugs off the grille. Trying to please the customer, Stacy moved the Jeep to the side of the building.

Stacy's accounts of what touched off the altercation with Stevenson varied. At the trial of his compensation claim, Stacy testified that as soon as he stepped out of the Jeep, Stevenson came over, grabbed him and demanded, "Who do you think you are? You the boss?" In his first deposition, Stacy stated that Stevenson laid hands on him when he asked for the hose; in his second deposition, he indicated that the affray started after he finished re-touching the Jeep and returned it to the front of the carwash. In all three versions, the physical contact started behind the building when Stevenson grabbed Stacy by the shoulder and tried to wrestle him down. They tussled over to the carwash rack, where Stacy slipped down and Stevenson reached for a paint bucket, as if to strike Stacy with it. The handle came off the bucket, however, and Stacy darted out the rear of the building. Stevenson picked up a 1 ½-foot piece of pipe and headed to the front to speak to the manager, Mr. Fawcett. Not wishing to be unarmed, Stacy grabbed a slightly shorter piece of pipe and ran up to where Stevenson and Fawcett were standing.

When Stacy reached the front, Mr. Fawcett stood between the two scufflers and demanded to know what was the matter. He then instructed them both to hand over their pieces of pipe. Stacy complied. Stevenson, however, made a gesture and struck Stacy in the head with his pipe. The only thing Stacy could recall was being helped onto a stretcher some time after the assault. In the second deposition, Stacy admitted he did not actually see Stevenson hit him, and added, "Within my heart, I think he grabbed me behind [sic] the cookies. That's the only thing I can see, because me and James never had no confrontation."

Shortly after the incident, Stacy filed a disputed claim for workers' compensation benefits in the OWC. The case proceeded to trial after which the WCJ found the injury work-related for purposes of compensation and awarded benefits. This court affirmed the judgment in Stacy v. Minit Oil Change, 31,985 (La.App. 2 Cir. 6/16/99), 742 So.2d 929.

In October 1997, Stacy filed the instant tort suit seeking general and special damages. In May 2003, Minit filed this motion for summary judgment. Minit contended that an employer is vicariously liable for the intentional torts of its employee only if those acts were in the course and scope of his employment. Baumeister v. Plunkett, 95-2270 (La.5/21/96), 673 So.2d 994. Minit conceded that the assault occurred in the course of Stevenson's employment, in that it happened during working hours and on the premises, but urged Stacy could not prove it was in the scope of employment, or that it served Minit's interest. In support, *387 Minit offered Stacy's first deposition, taken in conjunction with the comp claim.

Stacy opposed the motion, claiming he could produce "substantial evidence, both circumstantial and testimonial," that the intentional tort was employment-rooted. In support, he offered his second deposition as well as the workers' compensation trial transcript.

After a hearing in September 2003, the district court held that from the "two depositions of the plaintiff, this was a matter that dealt with the cookies and then just re-erupted into a more violent form." The court granted summary judgment and Stacy appeals.

Applicable Law

An employer is liable for a tort committed by its employee if, at the time, the employee was acting within the course and scope of his employment. La. C.C. art. 2320; Baumeister v. Plunkett, supra; Orgeron v. McDonald, 93-1353 (La.7/5/94), 639 So.2d 224. The course of employment refers to time and place. Benoit v. Capitol Mfg. Co., 617 So.2d 477 (La.1993). The scope of employment test examines the employment-related risk of injury. Id. For the employer to be vicariously liable, the tortious conduct of the employee must be "so closely connected in time, place, and causation to his employment duties as to be regarded as a risk of harm fairly attributable to the employer's business, as compared with conduct instituted by purely personal considerations entirely extraneous to the employer's interest." Barto v. Franchise Enterprises Inc., 588 So.2d 1353 (La.App. 2 Cir.1991), writ denied, 591 So.2d 708 (1992), quoting from LeBrane v. Lewis, 292 So.2d 216 (La.1974). An employer is not vicariously liable merely because its employee commits an intentional tort on the business premises during working hours. Scott v. Commercial Union Ins. Co., 415 So.2d 327 (La.App. 2 Cir. 1982).

In LeBrane v. Lewis, supra, the court articulated four factors in holding an employer liable for its supervisor's actions in stabbing a fellow employee:

(1) whether the tortious act was primarily employment rooted;

(2) whether the violence was reasonably incidental to the performance of the employee's duties;

(3) whether the act occurred on the employer's premises; and

(4) whether it occurred during the hours of employment.

LeBrane v. Lewis, 292 So.2d at 218.

The supreme court has subsequently held that not all four of these factors need be met to impose liability. Miller v. Keating, 349 So.2d 265 (La.1977). On the other hand, the employer is not vicariously liable merely because the employee commits an intentional tort on the employer's premises during working hours. Baumeister v. Plunkett, supra. A finding of course of employment, factors (3) and (4), without more, is insufficient to impose vicarious liability. Eichelberger v. Sidney, 34,040 (La.App. 2 Cir.

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874 So. 2d 384, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1165, 2004 WL 1103502, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stacy-v-minit-oil-change-inc-lactapp-2004.